Stay Safe
by CUtopia
Summary: Fred will give everything to keep Fay safe... (Character Death!)


First Assignment for the "Defence Against the Dark Arts Class" at "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments)"

**Please write about the practical uses of DADA, with the prompts of glow, fall, and, spike. **

I have changed the circumstances of Fred´s death in this one so they would suit a little bit better, excuse me :)

I hope you enjoy this one! :)

* * *

The castle was full with people running around, preparing for the battle, searching for friends to wish them luck. She simply stood there, turning her back to all the buzz in the hallway and stared out into the black night, watched how the protective spells were sent out to form a huge shield around the castle.

Fay Dunbar was more than relieved at this moment. For more than a half year Hogwarts had been a place where terror and violence had ruled and everyone´s picture of the second home had been shattered to pieces by that. But now Snape was gone, the Carrows had no power here any more, McGonagall was leading again the school... It was as if a tiny spark had been lighted in the darkness now they were about to make it a fire. Everyone was afraid, but they also had hope that everything would have a good end, thanks to Harry. Her heart had come to life like a blossom after the cold as the members of the Order of the Phoenix had entered the Great Hall, forcing Snape to leave. Everything was going to be better.

Suddenly she felt a warm hand on her shoulder and she turned slowly to face the person who looked down at her with a warm smile on his face.

"Hi, Fay. Good to see you", Fred Weasley said and Fay could feel herself blushing – something that happened to her all the time when he was around. She was quite surprised that he was approaching her, they hadn´t seen each other for some time now and she had thought that he might have forgotten about her, considering the fact that they had never talked about the sort of their relation. They had kissed shortly before he had left Hogwarts, he had teased her about the love potions she had been inspecting at her first visit at Weasley´s Wizarding Wheezes, had whispered that she surely did not needed such a potion as she was enchanting, they had exchanged a few letters and she had been in his store for a second time before the start of the term, but he had only grinned at her before he had turned back to the costumer he had been talking with... And she had tried to accept that she was not that important to him, that she may have imagined the tension between them. She had called herself foolish and tried to forget about him.

But now he was standing in front of her, smiling at her and looked better then ever before.

"Hi...", she breathed, still staring at him in surprise as his eyes did glide over her face, inspecting her and concern started to dawn on his face. He cupped her cheek and his thumb carefully touched one of the brightly coloured bruises on her cheekbone.

"What happened to you?"

"The Carrows weren´t exactly gentle", Fay answered and straightened her back. She suddenly felt much stronger then she had ever felt before.

"You know, this black eye makes you look sort of... bad ass", Fred grinned and she joined his chuckle, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"Well... I joined the DA, maybe I will be able to scare these death eaters away..."

They laughed together again, but then Fred turned silent and a serious look appeared on his face, one she was sure nobody had ever seen on the face that never seemed to do anything but smile. His fingers entwined with hers as he grabbed her hand and her heart started to beat faster as he looked down at her in such a caring way.

"I want you to be careful, Fay..."

"What..."

"Please, Fay, promise me that you will stay as safe as you can!"

The urgency in his voice, in his eyes and in his hold of her hands made her shiver and all she could manage in her growing surprise was a shaky nod before he let go of her hands and pulled her into a embrace.

Her lungs were burning, just as the muscles in her legs as she ran down a hallway, trying to escape the death eater that was following her, shooting curses at her. The fingers of her right hand felt numb from gripping her wand so tight, but all she could think about was running.

"Come here, little girly!"

She looked over her shoulder while running and screamed:"Reducto!"

But the spell did not hit the target it had been for, instead it hit the wall next to the man and heavy pieces of stone exploded into the hallway.

"You cannot escape, sweety! Stop running, I am going to kill you anyway!"

The hallways were full of dust and with every spell that was shot it started to glow in that particular colour – an amazing sight, but Fay did not have any time to give this more than a second thought as she stumbled over a huge stone and hit the ground, nearly loosing her wand in the process. Her knees were hurting just as her ribs, but she had to ignore it. She rolled around to lie on her back and to shoot a spell at her pursuer, but he was already standing over her with a ugly smile on his face.

"Got ya, little one!", he hissed and pointed his wand at her, but just as he mumbled his spell someone yelled:"PROTEGO!"

A shield emerged in front of Fay and the curse was thrown back, leaving the death eater in the need to jump to avoid his own curse. Fay used his distraction to get up and look who saved her.

"Didn´t I tell you to stay safe, fairy?!", Fred asked, shock and concern mixing up on his face. "Are you okay?"

"I am capable of self-defence!", she answered a little bit truculent, casting a wobbly-leg-curse at the man with a flick of her wand. Fred grabbed her hand and pulled her with him around the corner of the hallway. They walked a few minutes until they reached a statue of a humpbacked witch and stopped in front of it, even though they could hear the yells of death eaters searching the castle coming closer.

"Fay, I want you to take the secret passageway to get out of the castle", Fred whispered, his gaze wandering up and down the hallway in alert.

"What? No!"

"Fay, please!"

He gave her a pleading look, but she stared back at him, feeling angry about his over-protectiveness. Fay shook her head and hissed:"I decided to stay and fight, there is no way you are going to change my mind! Why do you want me to leave so desperately?"

"Because... Because I care for you, for Merlins sake!", Fred said a little bit to loud and as a death eater passed the corner, they both shouted at the same moment:"Expelliarmus!"

The man was ripped from his feet by the force of the combined spells and flew to the other side of the hallway, hitting the wall with a horrible crack.

"Then let me stay here! I can´t leave, I am not a coward!"

"But damn stubborn", he commented dryly, before he grabbed her by the waist and kissed her. It was a awkward situation, them standing only metres away from a battle, kissing as if only the two of them existed in this world. The situation seemed so over-dramatic, but it was real and she did not wanted it to end. Her body protested as he pulled away, but it was just in time as a new wave of death eaters crossed their paths. Fred never let go of her hand while they fought alongside each other, shooting spells at their opponents, until the moment Fay was hit by a spark of blue light. She stood there, numb for a few seconds, staring into nothing, a surprised expression on her face, then the pain started to spread in her body. It was as if thousands of little spikes hit her skin with a horrible momentum and the pain gripped her with merciless hands, leaving her unable to do anything else then releasing a cry of pain. The next seconds went by as if they were a film and at first she did not wanted to believe that this was actually happening.

One of the death eaters pointed his wand at her, aiming exactly for her heart with a grin on his face and in the second he released the curse Fay felt two strong hands pushing her sideways with a unbelievable force. While falling to the ground she turned and saw how the curse hit the chest of the man who had pushed her out of the line of fire, she saw him fall, gasping for air before he hit the ground.

This could not be happening, she was sure that this had to be a bad dream, a really bad nightmare, but the laughter of the men did not disappear, nor did the pain or the realisation what the empty gaze of the brown eyes meant.

"No...", she whispered, her voice only a strangled sound in the sudden silence left behind by the men who were leaving the field, seeing no harm in her any more. She gathered all the strength she could find in her aching body and got on her hands and knees, crawling over to Fred´s lifeless body, clutching his hand in the hope to get a response.

"No, you can´t... please, say something..."

Strangled sobs escaped her as she sat down next to him, looking down at his handsome face. She slowly realised that he was gone, gone forever, only because he had to safe her. It was noble but also so damn foolish and she wished she would have been able to do something else than watching. Fay slowly leaned forward, brushing her fingertips over his face to gently close his eyelids before she placed a gentle kiss on his still warm lips, tears dropping from her cheek on his skin.

"I will stay safe, I promise", she whispered into his ear, feeling her heart break and all she wanted to do was lying there, her head on his chest and wait for someone to either kill her or bring her to some safer place, but she knew that she couldn´t do that. She grabbed her wand and stood up, ignoring the pain in her limbs as she made her way towards the Great Hall to get back to the battle.


End file.
